1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicular wind power generator, which generates electrical power from wind when a vehicle carrying the same is moving.
2. Description of Related Art
Wind power is known as a kind of green energy resources. When a vehicle moves, air flows along its contours to form wind. Thus, it is desirable to leverage the wind to generate power and charge electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles so as to make the vehicle travel further as compared to its original capacity.
Taiwan Patent No. M378970 provides a vehicular power system using wind power generation. The vehicular power system includes at least one box installed on a vehicle. The box has its front side formed with a wind inlet and its back side formed with a wind outlet. A rotating member provided in the box has a shaft terminally equipped with a wind power generator. The power generator is connected through a lead to a rectifier, which is further connected to a battery. The battery is further connected to a booster, and the booster is further connected to a driving motor of the vehicle. When the vehicle goes, the naturally generated wind enters the box from the wind inlet, and drives the rotating member to rotate. The rotation in turn drives the power generator at the terminal of the shaft to operate and generate electric power. The power such generated is then processed by the rectifier and stored in the battery. The stored power is boosted by the booster and sent to the driving motor of the vehicle. Thereby, the driving motor is powered by the wind and supports the vehicle to move.
While the prior-art device is substantially a wind power generator, its closed structure is less effective. Particularly, before reaching the rotating member, the wind is reduced by the wind inlet and the box. Moreover, the rotating member is not designed to effectively collect and leverage the incoming wind to rotate at the possibly maximum speed, so the overall power-generating efficiency is poor.
Taiwan Patent Application No. 096129585 provides a vehicular power generator that comprises at least an impeller set and a fixing seat. The impeller set comprises an outer frame, a shaft, a plurality of blades and a plurality of supports. Each of the blades has two opposite ends provided with pivots to connect between the outer frame and the shaft, so that the blades can swing between the outer frame and the shaft. The shaft has two opposite ends provided with wheels around which a belt is mounted. The other end of the belt is mounted around a rotor of a power generator that is connected to a battery of a vehicle. Thereby, air flow along the contours of the moving vehicle drives the blades to rotate, so the power generator is operated to generate power and to store the generated power in the battery for the vehicle to use.
However, the prior-art device is bulky and, when installed on a roof of a vehicle, tends to cause the vehicle to fail to meet traffic regulations about height, and endanger the vehicle when passing through tunnels and traffic signs due to the height that exceeds the safe height limit.